13/01/2012: Medium-sized European enterprises begin to seek acquisitions in Brazil
Medium-sized European enterprises begin to seek acquisitions in Brazil
Companies with revenues between BRL 250 million and BRL 700 million want to buy businesses in the country to escape from local economic crisis
The Brazilian market has been on the radar of multinational companies for a long time. Now, however, medium-sized European enterprises begin to seek acquisitions in Brazil in order to escape from the crisis. These are companies with annual sales between EUR 100 million and 300 million euros, or something around R$ 250 million and R$700 million.
"This is a new trend. These are companies that already have a good market in Europe, but do not have a good presence internationally," said Daniel Benzercy Carneiro Cunha, a partner at the M&A Boutique called DealMaker which is advising at least two medium-sized international clients. "Five years ago, this kind of company was not part of our portfolio of customers," says Marcos Mellao Alves Lima, who is also a partner at DealMaker and has expertise in oil and gas and telecommunications businesses.
Numbers of M&A deals in 2011 is a record in Brazil
Currently, the M&A Boutique has about 15 ongoing mandates of mergers and acquisitions, and, roughly, a quarter involves foreign companies. "However, half of the potential mandates comes from abroad, some are large companies, but many mid-sized, with revenues up to USD 500 million per year (BRL 900 million)," said Cunha.
In spite of the European crisis and all the uncertainties about its impact on Brazil, M&A consultants evaluate that M&A transactions this year should not be much affected by this conjunctures. On the buying side, the European crisis and the negative interest rates in developed countries continue to force companies to leave in search of more profitable opportunities around the world. Brazil remains a good place to invest in medium and long term, even with a growth of 3.5% in GDP for 2012.































